The challenges and opportunities of cooperative land use planning
Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** A renewed push to protect the Owyhee
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Wednesday, June 21, 2023
The Owyhee River, BLM Oregon ([link removed])
Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have reintroduced a bill to protect more than 1 million acres of rugged wilderness in the Owyhee Canyonlands ([link removed]) , while also giving ranchers more flexibility on grazing permits and transferring land in trust to the Burns Paiute Tribe.
At the same time, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to finalize its management plan for more than 4 million acres ([link removed]) across southeastern Oregon. The BLM plans include protections for more than 400,000 acres of lands with wilderness characteristics, while still allowing off-road vehicles on more than 40,000 acres near the town of Vale.
The dual-track efforts to provide certainty and protection in the remote areas of the high desert highlight the challenges and opportunities of cooperative land use planning. Ranchers ([link removed]) , hunters ([link removed]) , and conservation groups ([link removed]) have all praised the bill and the BLM plans.
The Wyden/Merkley bill would formally recognize the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Council, which would be funded to work on projects in partnership with federal agenceis and private landowners.
** BLM Restoration Landscapes: Yanawant and Color Country
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Look West is highlighting 21 projects funded by BLM's $161 million Restoration Landscapes program ([link removed]) . Today's projects are the adjacent Yanawant landscape in Arizona, where restoration investments will restore habitat for threatened and endangered species and reduce fuel loads; and Utah's Color Country, where the Mojave Desert, Colorado Plateau, and Central Basin and Range converge, creating an ecosystem with plant species that exist nowhere else on earth. The two landscapes will receive more than $15 million in restoration funding.
Quick hits
** Tribal activists decry Nevada lithium mine as 'green colonialism'
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Associated Press ([link removed])
** Tribes seek greater involvement on Colorado River talks
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
** Federal government to preserve oral histories, records from Indian boarding schools
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States Newsroom ([link removed])
** Colorado ozone violations exacerbated by out-of-state wildfire smoke
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])
** As national parks get crowded, more Americans look to monuments and wildlife refuges
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The Conversation ([link removed])
** Yellowstone's Geyser Hill wakes up for summer tourism
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Idaho Capital Sun ([link removed])
** The Colorado town that's producing the future of workforce housing
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Summit Daily ([link removed])
** Montana wildlife refuge welcomes trumpeter swan pair and six cygnets
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NBC Montana ([link removed])
Quote of the day
” The BLM has an opportunity to safeguard some of Oregon’s best hunting areas and wildlife habitat through these land-use plans, and do it in a balanced way.... Proper management that includes conservation measures such as what’s proposed helps ensure that our valued hunting heritage, outdoor traditions, and way of life can be enjoyed by future generations.”
—Chris Hager, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers ([link removed])
Picture this
** @nationalparkservice ([link removed])
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Doing something you’re perfectly capable of, and have done it hundreds of times, until someone decides to watch.
Take a picture, it’ll last longer. Oh, wait. Well, at least it was just one person. By the way, did you hear the live-streaming cameras along the Brooks River at @katmainpp are back? Bears: “Great.” 🐻
Image: A bear fishing at the falls gets hit in face with a jumping salmon. NPS/L.Law
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